Nadim Choufi, “A Dragon in the Halls of Diplomacy”, performative poetry reading
10 September 2026, 19:00
A poet sends his editor his last poem and tells him to find the monster this poem is written for. "You will know him when you see him." The performance follows the editors search through poetry, love, monstrosity, and the halls of diplomacy.
In this performance, Nadim Choufi draws on his recent book “ In the Face of the Dragon”. The work is a cento poem woven entirely from lines borrowed from more than ninety Arab poets, many translated into English for the first time. Across these voices, poets, lovers, and entire peoples slip into animals, landscapes, and elemental forces, to find protective forms to speak of love and defiance in the face of destruction and dehumanization.
Performed with vocal artist Dai Solayman, this piece draws on the poetic lineage of acquiring new skins to create a rich tapestry of metamorphosis, longing, and survival.
The event is made possible thanks to the financial support from the Mondriaan Fund, the public cultural funding organization focusing on visual arts and cultural heritage.
Free admission
Language: English
Duration: 40 min
Doors open at 18:30. Performance starts at 19:00.
Nadim Choufi is a Lebanese artist living in Rotterdam. He works primarily in sculpture, extending into installation, performance, film, and text. His practice explores global and national visions of progress, the systems that sustain them, the lives they shape and exclude, and the desires that disrupt them. His recent work focuses on diplomacy and the objects, furniture, and architectures through which power is staged. Through poetics, monstrosity, and non-conforming desires, he examines how progress can be reimagined.Language: English
Duration: 40 min
Doors open at 18:30. Performance starts at 19:00.
Dai Solayman is a vocal performer from Cairo based in Berlin.
The event is part of Berlin Art Week Featured 2026